Stupid movies like this are so funny! Come on, you're at a site about bad movies, right? Don't be so surprised. Besides, the anime Dragonball is only mediocre, and Dragonball Z is the most horrible anime I have ever seen. It gives anime a bad name. The new DBZ movie probably won't be any better than this one.

The movie was hilarios I cant believe it was made in 1993. It's mainly based on the lore of the dragon pearls and Son-Goku which roughly translates into Monkey Boy. That is where the anime got the magic cloud and elongating staff. In R.O.D. the OVA there is a throughback to the weapons of Goku. It is also a pretty good anime deffinatly worth checking out.

It sucks, but the plot reminds me of the first dragonball movie.. it think it was three in all with a childlike goku and not the adult one.... yeah the plot is a lot like blood rubies or so was the title... but really the this film is not worth looking, but hey nice try for low budget and were they having the right to do that at all? I mean copyrights?

I am glad to see that there are others who have seen this magical film, and then when I viewed it on the International Channel that it was not merely a dream or a mirage. Holy s**t. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wasn't as innovative as we all thought.

Lets get it right. Although ideas for a few DB characters were taken from Chinese folklore, this movie's by no means an adaptation of 'Journey to The West'. Saying so would also be saying that Akira Toriyama was biting off of the folklore, instead of making an honest creative japanese comic. It was only a poorly made, unlicensed, goofy adaptation of the origin Dragonball. The references were obvious with Dragon Pearls being Dragonballs, Monkey Boy being Goku, Grandpa being Gohan (Goku's Grandfather/Guardian) although he live in the movie, Seetoe being Bulma, Pig Fairy as Oolong (remember the shapeshifter pig from DB/DBZ?), Westwood as Yamcha, and Turle Man as Master Roshi the Turtle Hermit. Other refernces include, Monkey Boy explaing he was found in the forest and raise by Grandpa, Piggy threatening young girls to force them to marry him, Turtle Man being a dirty ol' man, magic cloud (flying nimbus in DB/DBZ), and Westwood's stark fear of the fairer sex. And just like the DB series where Bulma likes Yamcha, Seetoe likes Westwood. I also think Snow White the parrot was a replacement for Por, Yamcha's shapeshifting cat friend. Yeah yeah, I watched the horrible movie and enjoy making the refernces. But it did remind me of most of the past movies adapted from comics/cartoons, before really good sfx existed. You remember ones like Doctor Strange, Spiderman live-action TV series, Street Fighter, and Masters of The Universe (aka He-Man), don't you?

I worship this movie like you may worship the bible. A guy must not touch a girl... they're called... RAPISTS!!! it has many morals. its all you need to teach your children. dont send them to school. if you think this is a big joke, get out of my sight. i am being dead serious. i might be insane, but if being insane involves loving this movie, send me to the asylum. YEAH!!!!

Well, first off, this movie is based of Doragonbōru: Shenron no Densetsu. Or DragonBall: THe Legend of Shenlong. AKA Curse of the Blood Rubies. Here is the synopisis for The Legend of Shelong:This is a retelling of how Goku began his adventures; from the first encounters with Bulma, Oolong, Pu'er, and Yamcha, up to his learning Kamehame-Ha just by watching Kame-Sen'nin using the technique, to the calling of the Dragon God, Shenlong. This time, Goku's origins are tied in with the evil King Gurumes (who wants the Dragon Balls to wish to put a stop to his endless hunger), and the King's minions, Pasta and Bongo (these two are using the quest for the Dragon Balls to cover the fact that they are greedily raping the countryside to gather up valuable "Rich Stones"). Bulma still wants to wish for a nice boyfriend, and Yamcha still wants the Dragon Balls to wish for his fear of women to be gone. Bulma ends up summoning Shenlong before Gurumes can, but Pansy, the daughter of the local mayor, shouts out her wish first -- for the countryside to be restored to its original state, prior to the discovery of Rich Stones. Shenlong does this, and causes the stones to disappear. Gurumes becomes a normal deformed human that likes to eat apples, and Goku zips off to find his Sūshinchū (Si Xing Qiu, the 4-star ball) again.

THank you Daizenshuu EX for the synopis.

now that you read it, The movie does has to do with Legend of Shenron instead of Journy to the West. I also have soemthing else to say. Comments should only be for people that saw the movie! Now this movie is missing somethings, but still. I give it 4.5/5.

The initial idea of Dragonball (The Manga) was a twisted version of the Chinese Legend "A Journey to the West". It follows Monkey Boy and his quest to retreive Buddhist scrolls from the West. Eventually, it eveolved into something completely different. This movie borrorws heavily from both Dragonball and Journey to the West.What you think of the movie pretty much depends on how you are watching it. If you are watching it as a live action version of Dragonball then you are likely to be disapointed if not outraged at the horrible job the makers did. However if you are watching it as a comedy kind of film or a parody then whether or not you like the anime doesn't matter you are going to find this a bad movie but so bad that it is funny.

Okay, it looks good.bad. It has nothing and alot to do with DragonBall. Jade was in the Jouney to the west. The monkey boy was in the journey to the west. So was the magical flying cloud. The Nyu Ibo was in the journey to the west. Who gives a s**t, DB manga was good, DB anime was good, so stick with them. DB copied the journey to the west, the s**t live action movie copied from the journey to the west and DB. Who cares, I agree with Nik Nak

DB and DBZ, in my opinion, are excellent, and a Live-Action Movie could have been an incredible opportunity to amaze people. Unfortunately, that was not the goal of this movie, but nonetheless it was hilarious. Horrible portrayals of great movies/shows/animes have *always* been popular, be they shown on TV, made into a film, or just people joking with their friends.

Naturally, those who turned to 'Dragonball: The Magic Begins' and expected to see astronomical Matrix-quality battles and a Kamehameha that could put the Death Star's lasers to shame were disappointed, but that's what happens when you expect too much of things.

And for all you who think that DB is not a twisted version of 'Journey to the West', Akira made it public knowledge that it was. Many many differences, and you may not like it, but that's the blunt truth =D

you guys are retarded, DragonBall, and DragonBall Z is based on an ancient chinese legend, and this movie is not even closely related with the anime. Although the stories are the same it is only because they come from the same myth told by asian people, and its not a live action reproduction of DBZ or its original DragonBall series. Most people will argue and say that the DBZ is way too extreme to be an ancient legend, what with the crazed alien dictators and what not, but thats only because after the unexpected popularity of DragonBall, the story had no where else to go, so they just started making s**t up. I have not seen the hole movie yet, but from the descriptions in the review it sounded like they give a very accurate porttrayal of the legend, but then again there are many different versions and many many many different speculations on the characters and the exact role in the story. This can especially be noted with Monkeyboy, or Goku. If you ever play Marvel Vs. Capcom you will see a character named son son, who is female, carries the power pole, and goes super sayan. I beleive she is based of one of capcoms early venture to produce a video game about the legend, but I havent found any proof yet. Nonetheless it proves my point, this is not closely related to the DragonBall anime series, however I have heard they are trying to make a live action version of the DBZ series, but I wouldn't keep my hopes up.

I love anime. Dragonball is not one of my favorites, but I still collapsed in horror at this monstrosity. It wasn't until the live action "Fist of The North Star" movie that this horror was topped. At one point they were even considering a live action "Bleach" movie! Otaku, Chite, or just plain anime fans, if you see this movie on the shelves, RUN!!!!!